Jamba

The franchise fee for a standard Jamba (they dropped 'Juice' from the name) is $35,500 — non-refundable, no territory protection unless negotiated separately. Veterans qualify for a reduced $20,000 fee. The co-branded version with Auntie Anne's doubles to $71,000.

Total investment for a traditional store without a drive-thru runs $469K to $806K. The biggest cost centers are construction and buildout ($200K–$340K) and equipment ($142K–$175K). The range is wide because of location variance — a mall kiosk conversion is very different from a ground-up streetside build. Non-traditional formats (airport, university, hospital) run $243K to $747K and can be a lower-cost entry point.

Ongoing fees run hot by category standards. Royalty is 7% of net sales, with contractual right to raise it to 8% at franchisor's sole discretion — no franchise vote required. The advertising obligation is 3% of net sales (2% national + 1% local, both temporarily reduced in 2025). Combined, you're at 10% of gross off the top before rent, labor, and COGS.

Technology costs are notable: POS licensing runs $802–$1,089/month if you use the Hardware-as-a-Service model, or $227–$454/month under CapEx. The mandatory loyalty app ($51/month), online ordering fee ($66/month + transaction percentage), and ordering support fee (3% per transaction on digital orders) add another $150–$300/month in platform costs. For a smoothie shop doing $600K in sales, all-in technology fees could run $12,000–$18,000 annually.

Jamba's Item 19 covers 511 of 531 traditional franchised restaurants that were operating for the full fiscal year. Average annual gross revenue came in at $689,065 in FY2024, with a median of $640,278. Only 42% of locations hit or exceeded that average, which is typical for right-skewed distributions — a handful of high-volume locations pull the average up.

The top-quartile average was $1,037,125 for stores without a drive-thru. Drive-thru locations fared better on average ($671,517 average, $606,059 median across just 32 locations), though the sample is too small to draw strong conclusions.

What the FDD doesn't disclose: COGS, labor, rent, or any profitability metrics. For a smoothie and juice concept, food costs typically run 28–34% of revenue, and labor another 30–35% in a high-wage market. After royalty (7%), advertising (3%), rent, and those operating costs, a $640K median location is likely producing thin margins. Model this carefully with current local labor and rent costs before committing.

The Jamba system peaked around 750 units in 2022 and has declined every year since — to 738 in 2022, 734 in 2023, and 727 in 2024. That's a net loss of 23 units over three years, driven primarily by closures (46 in 2024 alone) outpacing new openings (42 in 2024).

The good news: 219 franchise agreements were signed but not yet opened as of year-end 2023, suggesting there's still franchisee appetite for new locations. The bad news: the system-wide unit count has not grown despite that pipeline, meaning closures are absorbing new openings. A shrinking system typically indicates some combination of economics that don't pencil, lease expirations in declining retail centers, or operator burnout. You need to investigate which is driving closures in the markets you're considering.

The franchisor's ability to raise the royalty to 8% (from 7%) at their sole discretion is unusual — most FDDs lock the royalty rate for the term. That one-point increase on a $640K revenue location is $6,400/year in additional cost, and there's no built-in protection against it.

The remodel and refresh cycle is mandatory: every 5 years for a refresh ($1,200–$6,000 in survey and design fees alone) and every 10 years for a full remodel. These costs are not in the initial investment table, so your true 10-year total cost of ownership is higher than the headline figure.

The guest relations penalty ($30 per untimely complaint response) and non-compliance fee ($25–$500 per violation, assessed daily for ongoing violations) can become meaningful for a busy operator with multiple customer touchpoints. Combined with a declining system and a franchisor that has full discretion on royalty rate increases, this is a relationship that requires careful legal review before signing.